Personnel Matters
Bill Finley doesn’t let jockey Garrett Gomez off easy for his recent firing of agent Jim Pegram, who helped Gomez become one of the West Coast’s hottest jockeys this year after he returned to riding following a two-year absence caused by drug addiction:
Gomez … shows no signs of relapsing into his old bad habits and is sure to be a major star for years to come. He’s got a lot of attributes. Apparently, loyalty isn’t one of them.
Pegram is now working for Kent Desormeaux; Gomez has hired Ron Anderson as his new agent.
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Churchill Downs’ fired starter Roger Nagle says he was let go because he wouldn’t agree to use techniques to load the gate that he considered unsafe. “I don’t give a damn if I have to eat cat food, I’m not going to do something that might get somebody hurt,” said Nagle. Churchill Downs isn’t commenting, which Tote Board Brad finds totally in keeping with the track management’s “brash, arrogant” style.
